Queens of the World
by entercleverpennamehere
Summary: AU with other continuities as influences - Generally in Transformers, the main cast is male-dominated, with perhaps the odd female character making an appearance at some point. Well not this time! Join this (mildly dysfunctional) team of femmes through laughter, tears, crash-landing on strange organic planets and general surreal events. Reviews warmly received!
1. Prologue

Here's the prologue of my new story - hope you like it and express an interest in it!** Transformers doesn't belong to me, it belongs to its respective owners.** Enjoy!

* * *

_Prologue_

The first round of alarms surprised them. The second round of alarms worried them. The third round of alarms - okay, Delta Prime mused as she violently tugged on the controls, perhaps they should have jumped into action at the sign of ANY alarm. _The Artemis_ veered wildly to its starboard side, throwing its crew up into the air.

"Hold on everyone!" Delta shouted.  
"Easy for you to say - you were the one monitoring the radar!"  
Delta snapped her red and pink helm around to face the pink and black femme, "Don't forget Arcee, that I was only forced to do that because you decided to gallivant off somewhere again!"  
Arcee's cerulean optics narrowed, before she let out a yelp as the ship jerked again.

"How did we not notice a slaggin' DECEPTICON WARSHIP?!" Chromia, the dark blue femme, bit out as she held onto a desk for dear life.

The others yelped yet again as the ship vaguely righted itself.  
Delta rolled her optics in frustration, "Oh, give me a break! Elita - status report!"

Said yellow and purple femme nodded sharply before turning and cautiously making her way over to the nearest computer console to type in some quick commands; her optics widened as she made her discovery, "We're heading into the vicinity of an inhabited planet!"

"Slag! Delta, we need to get to the stasis pods, stat!" the team's medic, Red Alert, barked over the noise of their rapidly disintegrating ship.

Delta briefly contemplated this before finally giving the order. Red Alert immediately obeyed, but the others were somewhat reluctant.  
"I said go!" Delta growled as she purposely made the ship jerk sideways, effectively making her crew physically tumble towards the stasis pods. The team soon got the message, and scanned a stasis pod each and entered through the translucent doors.

However, Moonracer - the green and white femme - turned towards her leader, "What about you, Delta?" she called.  
Delta turned around to sincerely look the youngest member of their team in the optics - optics so big and blue and innocent despite all that they had been through; she was still just a child, "I'll be fine, Moon - go join the others. I'll just steer us away from any populated areas before I get into my own pod," the younger merely wavered slightly, "I promise, Moonracer - now go!"  
Moonracer nodded vigorously and immediately went to her pod.

Delta mentally sighed, before diving to the computer console and typing in a few brief commands. She the proceeded to give the controls one last sharp turn, and sprinted towards her own empty pod; she scanned and entered it, before letting the well-deserved realm of unconsciousness claim her.

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Thanks for reading and please review! I'll try to update soon!


	2. Chapter 1

Well, here's the first chapter - thank you to all of you who have shown an interest already! This chapter may seem to drag a bit, but I kinda need to introduce two of the main human characters before I jump into the main storyline, so please bear with me.

**Transformers and any other recogniseable brands do not belong to me, but to their respective owners.**

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**_CHAPTER 1 - Of Ominous Rumbling & Chickens_**

"Ms. Nakadai?"

A brief snuffle came from the Japanese student's desk; nothing more, nothing less.

"Ms. Nakadai, I asked you a question: How does this chapter demonstrate that Elizabeth is reconsidering her initial opinions on Darcy?"

The girl lazily opened one eye, before regarding her teacher with a look bordering condescension, "Uh... She started getting lovey-dovey texts from him?"

The class snickered at their peer's blatant insubordination. If the teacher - Mrs. Enid Clark - was a less professional woman, she would have permitted herself a facepalm. Instead, she settled with an exasperated sigh, "Miko, I would like to see you after class, please, regarding your ability to remain awake during lessons,"

Fun. Ordinarily, Miko wouldn't have cared - See teacher. Agree with teacher's constructive criticism. Promise to try harder. Break that promise. Rinse and repeat.  
However, today was the day that she was to prove to the others that she WASN'T too chicken to explore the underground bunker off Promenade Avenue! There was no way in HELL that she was gonna miss that. Unfortunately, Mrs. Clark had continued with the rest of her lesson before Miko could protest.  
And there was another thing: she hadn't even been sleeping! She was merely resting her eyes in her folded arms, all while pondering why on EARTH she was sent to Spring Sands Beach - AKA the Most Boring and Disinteresting Place on the Planet - for her lengthy trip to America. Okay, maybe she had been _slightly_ close to having a _teensy_ nap.

The bell soon rang, and the assembled teenagers rowdily rose from their desks and headed for the door and then home; Miko also attempted an escape, but was caught at the last second by a rather unimpressed Mrs. Clark, "Come and sit down, Miko,"  
Seeing as she was practically being half dragged towards the teacher's desk, Miko wisely decided not to protest.

The older woman pulled her own chair back on the other side of the desk and sat in it, "Miko, you obviously know why we're sat here now, wasting both of our evenings, so I'm just going to cut to the chase: we need to do something about your focus in class,"

Miko made the universal 'don't sweat' noise with her mouth and hand gesture, "It's fine, Mrs. Clark - I..." she trailed off as she saw one of the boys at the window behind Mrs. Clark, "I... Will try harder in future - I promise!".

The guy was one of Vince's cohort - complete jerks - and he began to scrawl something on a pad with a purple marker; this notwithstanding, Mrs. Clark didn't seem to notice and so continued, "Miko, my colleagues and I are growing concerned about your clear lack of interest..."

Mrs. Clark continued on with her talk while Miko tried to decipher the badly scrawled message on the lined paper pad on the other side of the window - upon closer inspection, it appeared to say 'chicken'. Miko narrowed her eyes at the rather smug and proud-looking gang of teens outside - Vince and his Jerk Squad were sooo going down.

"...Is there anything you'd like to add, Miko? Are these extra classes alright?"

Miko snapped her attention back to the teacher, "Uhh... Extra classes?"

Mrs. Clark frowned, "Yes, you just nodded in agreement when I suggested them,"

Damn. She had been subconsciously nodding in agreement to whatever the woman said; too late (and conspicuous) to turn back now, "Yes, they're fine by me,". They really weren't.

This seemed to be the right answer, and the elder woman genuinely smiled at the girl, "Good. Remember Miko, I know at your age it may seem like everyone's out to get you, but we really do just want the best for you. I'll see you at lunch on Thursday, okay?"

Miko gulped and nodded almost too vigorously, and thanking the teacher, ran as quickly as she could away from the classroom.

* * *

"Huh, though you were too _chicken_ to show up, Miko," Vince smirked as he received a high-five from one of his minions.

Miko shrugged before smirking, having taken notice of the jab, "Nope, just sorting out a few issues. Anyway, we'll see who's the real chicken here when I go explore the bunker AND kick your asses on my way out,"

"Oooh!" some of the gathered teens whistled, much to Miko's satisfaction.

The group of teenagers then piled into one of the guys' old red pickup truck, and set off for the woods on the Western edge of the town.

"Hey, guys?"

They all turned around to meet the pale blue gaze of Mikaela Banes, one of the 'Populars' from the year above Miko.

"Yeah?" One of the boys grunted.

Mikaela's top lip twitched slightly at this, before she asked her question, "What are you doing? Not off exploring the bunkers, I hope...". Miko furrowed her brows at the other girl's tone - just what was she after? A date?

"Why do you wanna-?" however, one of the other boys was interrupted by a mildly enamoured Vince, "You wanna come?". Creep.

Mikaela flashed a gleaming smile in his direction, "I was hoping you'd ask - The others are all going shopping and I haven't got this month's allowance yet; I just want some _excitement_,"

Miko huffed; great, a Popular who was actually willing to flirt openly with Vince. That was all they needed.

"Well hop in," Vince flashed a triumphant smirk at his minions as the girl climbed into the back next to Miko, much to the other girl's chagrin. Miko and Mikaela barely even acknowledged each other's existence for the entire 10 minute journey; it was only when Miko's beloved mobile phone buzzed that the girls exchanged more than a glance,

"Host parents," Miko shrugged dismissively, smiling in acknowledgment of the awkwardness.

Mikaela, surprisingly, reciprocated the gesture, but then frowned slightly, "Shouldn't you take the call, then?"

Miko shrugged again, "Nah, they'll be fine,"

And with that, the girls again sat in silence. Miko briefly noticed in passing the uncomfortable shuffling from Mikaela, and the distinct (and equally surprising) lack of flirting between the older girl and Vince. However, before Miko could finish that train of thought, the truck pulled to a stop in a clearing in the thin woodland. The teenagers jumped out, and headed towards the bunker's supposed location.

"How do you guys know the way to the bunker?" Mikaela asked; the bunker wasn't a widely known secret to outsiders, but even fewer people had actually seen it themselves.

One of the guys, Hector, snorted, "'Cause it screws with the built-in navigation systems in our cell phones,"

As Hector explained that, one of the other guys, Ben, waved his phone around, "Vince! This way!"

The group then hurried after him, until they came across a very large clearing, easily the size of several football fields, with considerably more grass growing than the other clearings that they had seen.

"This is it," Miko whispered to herself; it certainly didn't look like much, unless Bigfoot used this as a lounge. Then again, she had been expecting a massive vault door with mysterious runes on it.

"So, uh, anyone know where the entrance is?" Vince asked almost warily.

The girls exchanged a look before staring incredulously at the ginger boy, "What? Are trying to tell us that you were acting all macho about this and you've never even been here before?!" Mikaela stamped her foot, and, worryingly, this caused a deep rumbling to emanate from the ground beneath the girls.

"Mikaela... Please tell me that that wasn't the ground ominously rumbling beneath our very feet," Miko blinked.

However, the boys soon ran away. At that same moment (coincidentally at the same moment that Miko shouted "_Jerks!_"), the ground literally opened-up beneath Mikaela and Miko.

* * *

This is it: Chapter 1 of Queens of the World if officially up!

And yes, in case you couldn't tell, this AU is going to be combining several characters from across the Transformers Multiverse and dumping them in a fictional setting :-)

Please keep those reviews coming in!


	3. Chapter 2

Here it is: Queens of the World Chapter 2! Thanks to everyone for the support already.

**Transformers and other recognisable brands do not belong to me but instead to their rightful owners**

Enjoy!

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**_Chapter 2 - Of Tunnels and Footsteps_**

_'"Ouch" would have been pretty justified,'_ Mikaela mused as she managed to prop herself up from the dusty ground. She surveyed her surroundings with irritated eyes, when she heard her companion's coughing and groans.

Miko sat up herself with a strained groan, before grinding out, "I swear, when I see those WIMPS who call themselves TOUGH again, I'm gonna kill them..."

Mikaela found that she couldn't disagree, but cleared her throat, "Where are we?"

Miko blinked, simultaneously clearing her eyes as well as allowing them to adjust to their dark surroundings, "Not a clue - a cave or something? There better not be too many bugs..."

Mikaela looked up when Miko did, trying to calculate a way for them to get out of there; unfortunately, the hole from which they fell through was easily 9 feet above their heads, and there were no visible ledges for them to possibly climb up. "Damn,"

"So... How are we gonna get back up there?" Miko asked with a little trepidation.

Mikaela shrugged, "I dunno, unless you happen to have a tiny yet very bouncy trampoline or a jetpack inside that bag of yours," she gestured sharper than intended at Miko's backpack.

The Japanese teen frowned slightly before beginning to rummage through the bag in question, much to Mikaela's alarm,

"You do realise that I, uh, didn't mean it literally, right?"

Miko looked up at her sincerely before deadpanning, "Well, duh - do you seriously think that I'm the sort of person who a) could find a trampoline small enough, or b) knows how to develop an actual jetpack? Who do you think I am? That Esquivel kid or something?"

"Sorry," Mikaela muttered. It was at this point that she recalled some of the things that her friends (or 'Populars', as Miko called them) had said about Miko Nakadai, the Japanese exchange student. Mikaela's ponderings were soon interrupted as Miko rose triumphantly with an 'ahah!' and a small cylindrical object,

"I knew I had my flashlight!" she turned it on, and it immediately illuminated their surroundings; they were apparently in some form of long tunnel, with no apparent end visible to the naked eye.

"Great..."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Come on! I'm growing old here!" an escaping Miko called impatiently as Mikaela further analysed their situation.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Miko rolled her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Duh, exploring - maybe there'll be another way to get out down there?"

Mikaela weighed-up the options, before reluctantly following Miko into the pitch black abyss.

* * *

They had been walking for about 5 minutes when Miko stopped abruptly.

"What gives?" Mikaela huffed as she crashed into the back of the other girl as a result of the lack of light. But Miko didn't answer, and instead pulled her trusty mobile phone out of her dungarees pocket and snapped a photo of something on the ground.

"Wait - you mean that you've had your cell phone with you this entire time?!" Mikaela almost shrieked.

"No signal," Miko answered simply.

Mikaela blinked, "What? Oh,". She then shuffled over to Miko, "What is it?" she asked with some hesitation - Miko's uncharacteristic silence was beginning to concern her.

"Look at this!" Miko suddenly whipped around and showed Mikaela the photo - it was of a small orange hair tie with a dark hair on it, although it was too dark to properly determine the true colour of the hair despite the camera's flash. Miko suddenly began to freak out, "OhmyGod what if this belonged to the some serial killer's last victim?! What if an axe murderer lives in these very tunnels and we're gonna be the next victims?! Maybe-"

"Miko!" Mikaela braced her with her hands on her shoulders, "Chill out! The last thing we need to do is panic!"

"Well excuse me, but you're not exactly the epitome of 'calm' right now!" Miko retorted hotly.

Mikaela glared at the younger girl before continuing on down the tunnel, "Coming?"

Miko reluctantly followed her.

* * *

The two girls had been walking for another few minutes in perfect silence, the only noise being the slight crunching of the grit beneath their feet.

"Sorry for snapping," Miko tried to break the tension.

"I'm sorry too, but you were right," Mikaela muttered quietly, "We just need to get out of here..."

They walked on for another few moments, again shrouded in an awkward silence, until Miko felt obliged to ease it again, "So... What's with you and Vince?"

Mikaela looked at her, "What about us?"

Miko shrugged, "I don't know, but earlier on, you kinda acted as if you two had a thing goin' on, but for the rest of the journey there was a considerable LACK of shallow flirting - why?"

This time it was Mikaela's turn to shrug, "I don't know, I guess some of my friends know him well and I kinda wanted an adventure, so..."

"Oh. I just though that, you know, your kind of people-"

Mikaela's tone turned as icy as her pale blue eyes as she turned sharply to Miko, "What do you mean 'my kind of people'? Don't immediately presume that just because I hang out with the likes of Miranda Smyth and Kaycee Perkins that I'm just a clone of them - you of all people should know not to judge!"

Miko visibly sagged, "I know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that; I know you're nothing like them - I mean, you're not a bitch or anything, but I guess I just expected that with how you acted before we drove here. I'm sorry,"

They began to carry on walking, "It's fine, just drop it," Mikaela said softly.

"But why DO you hand out with them-? Cool!"

Mikaela blinked at the sudden change of subject, "I'm sorry?".

However, she soon realised what had stopped her companion in her tracks - a massive wall of metal blocked the rest of the tunnel.

"What...?" Mikaela breathed, noticing giant symbols carved onto the exterior; its chrome-like sheen was fading, and was caked in dust and cobwebs, no doubt a result of being underground for a long period of time.

"This. Is. So. Awesome!" Miko cheered, before yet again handing her torch to Mikaela and extracting her phone from her dungarees pocket. However, as she flipped it open to snap another photo, the ground began to rumble again.

Mikaela panicked, "Miko! What have you done?! It's happening again!"

"What?! I was only trying to take a picture!" she tried to defend herself.

However, before Mikaela could retort, the ground in front of them collapsed as the giant metal wall began to shift. The next thing they knew, they were falling forwards, surrounded by a mountain of debris.

* * *

Coughing was all Mikaela and Miko could do as they broke the surface of the mountain.

Mikaela blinked, trying to gather her bearings despite struggling to see through the almost impenetrable cloud of dust that still lingered, "Not again..."

"Uh... Mikaela?" Miko said hoarsely.

"What?" Mikaela almost snapped, thoroughly tired and weary after their little 'adventure'.

"Look at this..." Mikaela however obeyed, and her eyes immediately widened at their new surroundings: the rocky walls were replaced with metal ones adorned with symbols and buttons, the musty smell was replaced with that of oil, and the darkness was replaced with piercing fluorescent lighting.

"Whoa..." The ceiling was easily 50-60 feet high, with strips of lighting fixtures, and at the end of the room was what appeared to be an inhumanly large doorway.

"Let's explore!" Miko whispered loudly, bounding down the room.

"Miko!" Mikaela was forced to follow her. She soon caught up with her companion, before asking the million dollar question: "Where the hell are we?"

"I don't know, but it's cool!" Miko sang as she was preparing to snap a few more photos; Mikaela soon confiscated the phone, "Hey, what gives?!"

"Remember what happened last time you used your cell phone near here?" Mikaela deadpanned, before handing the phone back to the grumbling girl.

"Maybe it's alien?"

Mikaela snorted despite the feeling in the back of her head, "What if it's a government research facility? Or a bunker?"

Miko, however, was too preoccupied with what the next room held; 10 giant pods, each reaching almost to the ceiling, lined the walls, the light casting a seemingly iridescent sheen over the translucent glass hatches. Of course, Miko tried to touch them, much to Mikaela's horror,

"Miko! What if it's radioactive or something? Don't touch them!"

Too late. An alarm blared, and their eyes widened comically as they heard clicks and thundering footsteps coming from an adjoining room. Both girls screamed and ran, not bothering to see what was following them. They scrambled up the pile of dirt, putting all of their might into hauling themselves up back into the tunnel. The fact that the footsteps had stopped notwithstanding, they carried on running as fast as they could, back to the entrance hole.

In desperation, Miko tried to scramble up the featureless wall in an attempt to reach the hole that they first fell through. It didn't work.

"Miko, I'll give you a boost!" Mikaela laced her fingers together to demonstrate.

Miko nodded before bracing herself, Mikaela doing the same, "Alright, one, two, three!"

With that, Miko used Mikaela's hands for leverage, before just about reaching the rim of the hole. Using all of her might, she grunted, and slowly pulled herself upwards into the outside world. Groaning in triumph, Miko lay there for a moment, regaining her breath and strength.

"Uh, little help here?" Miko heard Mikaela's voice from below.

"Oops, sorry," she chuckled guiltily, before she crouched down in front of the hole, and gradually lowered herself onto her stomach. She reached her hand down and stretched for Mikaela to reach it. The two girls used all of their might to haul Mikaela out of the hole; Mikaela walked up the walls in an inverted abseil in an attempt to relieve Miko of a little bit of the strain. After a lot of grunting and straining, Mikaela finally broke the surface, and both breathless girls lay on the hard forest floor for a moment to regain their composure. Finally, they hauled themselves to their feet,

"What the hell was THAT?!" Mikaela bit out.

"Aliens, I swear," Miko replied as they slowly made their way back towards the town - there was no point in even attempting to go back to the truck, it'd be long gone.

"Miko, surely there's a more rational explanation! Like the government faculty theory!"

Miko didn't bother replying; if Mikaela wanted to try and convince herself, then that was her choice.

After all, ignorance is bliss.

* * *

Thanks for reading and please continue reviewing! Till next time!


	4. Chapter 3

Whew! Here's Chapter 3 of Queens of the World - Again, this chapter mainly focuses on Mikaela and Miko, although a new character (which I think most of you have guessed anyway!) will appear; Autobots will be in the next chapter, I promise!

**Transformers and other recognisable brands do not belong to me, but instead to their rightful owners**

On with the show!

* * *

**_Of Dubious Conspiracy Websites and Worrying Revelations_**

That night, the girls had a rather restless and troublesome sleep; vague dreams of aliens and footsteps tinged their light rest, and despite their efforts to forget what they had experienced that day, it still preyed on their minds.

After her 'discussion' with her host parents regarding not answering her phone, Miko had retired to her bedroom early. Flopping down onto her flowery duvet (not her choice) and kicking her feet up, she plugged some headphones in and decided to listen to some nice, calming heavy metal in a futile attempt to relax from the day's events.

It didn't work - her curiosity got the better of her.

She pulled our her phone again and before she knew it, she was staring intently at the image that she had taken in the tunnel, trying to decipher what it was exactly. Her suspicions were correct - it was indeed an orange hair tie, lying broken on the dusty ground. But whose was it? Did they lose it in an attempt to run away from the thundering metallic footsteps too?

* * *

Still thoroughly creeped out by her experience, Mikaela was experiencing a bit of turmoil - her more rational half was telling her that what they saw MUST have been some kind of secret government facility. However, she also had an irritating feeling in the back of her head that the evidence AGAINST that theory was just too strong - giant metallic footsteps? A strange hieroglyphic language? Maybe what Miko said was right - maybe it wasn't of an earthly origin.

Eventually relenting and letting the tenacity of that feeling get the better of her, she pulled out her laptop and proceeded to run an Internet search of strange occurrences in the local area.

After sorting through the usual plethora of surfing and ocean-related news, she came across an old news article concerning the preservation of the town's news archive. It told of a scheme, set up in 2007, in which local volunteers met at the town hall, local police station and newspaper office to sort through and compile a definitive archive of Spring Sands Beach's news history. The whole collection was now apparently housed in the library.

Filing this knowledge away for another day, Mikaela pressed on in her search for answers, until she came across a conspiracy website. Raising an eyebrow, she noticed the website's name: 'The Real Effing Deal'; she rolled her eyes, before clicking the link.

Almost immediately her attention was drawn to the headline 'Surfing Aliens? The Historic Spring Sands Beach Mystery'.

Reading the article, she learnt that there had been reports on the evening of the 23rd June 1895 of lights in the sky, followed a short while later by an explosion in the local wooded area. Locals tried to investigate the next day, but their work was hindered by a violent Pacific storm, which caused excess surface runoff and localised flooding where the crash supposedly happened. Subsequent searches were inconclusive, and nothing was found.

Mikaela's eyebrows rose - yet another piece of evidence supporting the extraterrestrial theory.

Browsing through the rest of the website, she failed to find anything else on the matter; all of the recent articles appeared to be on the subject of some small town in Nevada called Jasper and Detroit. Giving up for the evening, Mikaela decided to try and get some sleep to relieve her stress.

* * *

The next day on the way to school, Miko had a lot on her mind; walking down the dusty road, she allowed all these thoughts of aliens and hair ties get to her so much she didn't notice who she was walking towards.

Mikaela had just left her house when she literally got shoved into her own fence by someone walking right into her, "Hey, watch it!" she whipped round to the culprit, before realising who it was, "Oh, hey Miko".

Miko, who was brought out of her pondering, hastily apologised, "Hey. Sorry about that,"

Mikaela shrugged it off with "It's fine," before they continued walking. They walked in relative silence for a few streets until Mikaela felt compelled to relate to Miko her findings, "I, uh, did a bit of research last night,"

This piqued Miko's curiosity, "Oh?"

"Yeah, and it turns out that the local library has a massive collection of all local news stories from the past century or so, and I was gonna go see it after school today - you wanna come?

"Sure! So, did ya find anything else?" Miko asked.

Mikaela nodded hesitantly, "Yeah... I also Googled it, and I came across this conspiracy website called 'The Real Effing Deal', and-"

Miko snorted, "Seriously?"

Mikaela chuckled too, "Yeah, I had the same reaction. Anyway, apparently something crashed in the woods here back in 1895 after reports of lights in the sky,"

Miko's eyes widened at this revelation, "Did they find anything?"

Mikaela shook her head, "No - apparently there was a large storm before they could find anything, and the alleged crash site flooded, covering any trace of anything,"

"Creepy - but let's have a look in the library later to see if we can find any more info, yeah? Anyway, see ya later!" Mikaela just realised that they reached the school foyer, and Miko waved to her and walked off towards her locker.

"Bye..."

* * *

The lessons before lunch went by fairly quickly. Mikaela was putting some of her books back in her locker when she was approached by some of the girls she hung out with,

"Hey Mikaela! Vince was telling me about a little _accident_ you had yesterday in the woods,"

Mikaela turned to face Kaycee Perkins, Miranda Smyth and co and supressed a roll of her eyes, "Yeah, I fell into an old tunnel - got out eventually, though," she cast an unimpressed glance to Miranda's ever-shortening shorts as the other girl snorted,

"Yeah, we figured. Anyway, we'll see you in the cafeteria yeah? Byeee!"

And with that, the 'Populars' left.

Mikaela sighed before returning to her locker, more specifically trying to wedge her Biology textbook between her Maths and English Literature ones. She let out a startled yelp when she felt two hands on her shoulders.

"Whatcha doing?"

Mikaela turned round to see Miko grinning to herself, "Miko! Don't do that!"

"Sorry," the Japanese girl shrugged; it was obvious that other things were on her mind, "I forgot to tell you this morning! I was looking at the photo I took yesterday in the tunnels, and-" Miko was about to pull her phone out, but decided against it when she saw a teacher patrolling the corridor, "I'll show you in a bit. Hey, why don't you join me for lunch? I generally sit outside under the tree,"

Mikaela cast a sideways looks to her 'friends', who were currently busy flirting with one of the Seniors. She decided to bite the bullet and accepted Miko's offer, "Fine, sounds great - it's not as if I was gonna do anything anyway,"

Miko's eyes widened in genuine surprise, and she jumped on the spot, "Great! I'll see you out there!" and she ran off.

Mikaela shrugged and headed-off to go and get her own lunch.

* * *

Warily carrying her lunch tray over to the designated tree while simultaneously trying to avoid her other friends and trying not to spill the carton of juice, Mikaela finally spotted Miko, who waved to her.

"Great! You're here!" Miko said, apparently ignoring their lunch, "I was gonna tell you this morning, but last night I couldn't sleep so I was looking again at the photo that I took in the tunnel, and it IS a hair tie - an orange one, with darkish hairs stuck in it," she looked around briefly before getting her phone out and showing Mikaela the photo again.

The older girl scrutinised the picture, noticing something else too, "Is that a bead on it?"

Miko nodded, "Yeah, it looks like one of those hair ties with a little bead through it,"

"That's weird," Mikaela murmured, "Did you see anything else in there?"

"Nope," Miko admitted, "And I DEFINITELY didn't see any blood, that is, unless the aliens cleaned it all up..."

"Miko," Mikaela rolled her eyes, "Why are you convinced that it's aliens?"

Miko looked at her sincerely, with an annoyed tinge to her voice, "Oh, come on, Mikaela! Face the facts! How does a government testing facility fall out of the sky? How does a government testing facility have everything written in a language neither of us have ever seen before? I think you're just afraid to admit that it's different!" she crossed her arms.

Mikaela was about to snap back at the younger girl, when something caught her eye, "Miko..."

"What? No sharp comeback? What is it-?"

"Who is that?" Mikaela's gaze didn't waver as she pointed to a tan girl with red-auburn hair, who was sat reading under another tree.

Miko followed Mikaela's line of site and chuckled slightly, "Oh, her? She's in a few of my classes - Sari Sumdac, I think? Yeah, we kind of have this funny kind of mutual thing where we always sit in the same places at lunch, but never really talk to each other... Why do you ask?"

"Look at her hair," Mikaela whispered.

Miko snorted, "Yeah, it's a bit too auburn to be natural... And she's totally stolen my hairstyle!"

Mikaela rolled her eyes, "No, Miko, look at her hair ties..."

Miko almost gasped - they were the same as in the photo!

"You don't think..."

"I don't know - let's go ask!"

"Miko!" Mikaela found herself forcefully yanked up off the ground by her slightly younger friend, and dragged across the yard towards the redhead.

The girl looked up from her book, "Hi Miko, and...?"

"Mikaela,"

Sari smiled at the girls, closing her book, "Anything I can help you with?"

"Uh, we were wondering if you knew anything about the giant spaceship thing under the woods?" Miko asked.

Mikaela facepalmed - smooth, Miko, real smooth.

Sari's cheek twitched slightly and frowned, without giving any real clues as to whether she knew or not, "What? Oh, you mean that news story from the late 1800s?"

Mikaela nodded, "Uh... Yeah? Look, we kinda-"

"Fell through the ground," Miko interrupted.

"Yeah," she gave Miko a look, "We had a bit of an accident and ended up in this tunnel system, and between the hole that we fell through and the _giant metal wall,_ we found an orange hair tie,"

"And?" Sari asked, not liking where this was going.

"It matched yours," Miko finished, showing Sari the image on her phone.

Sari's eyes widened slightly, before she furrowed her brows, "What makes you think it's mine? What if it belongs to someone else?"

Miko put a hand on her hip, "Dude - a few days ago you were wearing TWO orange hair ties, and one day you came to school wearing ONE, with a mismatching other one,"

Busted.

Sari, not liking where this was heading at all, rose from the ground and began to walk off.

"Sari, wait! We didn't mean to accuse you of anything, we just want to know what you saw there," Mikaela hurriedly explained as they caught up with the other girl.

"Look, you guys seem nice, but I really don't want you to get involved..." Sari said sincerely.

"Involved in what?" Miko raised an eyebrow.

Sari sighed, "I suggest just forgetting what you saw down there and just getting on with your lives...". And with that, Sari gave them a sad smile and walked off, just as the bell went.

"Damn. What are we gonna do now?" Miko cursed.

Mikaela offered her a sly sideways look, "Well, what if she goes back there tonight...?"

Miko split into a smile to match the older girl's, "Oh, Mikaela, I like your style. I've taught you well..."

* * *

At the end of the school day, Mikaela and Miko met under the same tree as they had earlier.

"Have you seen the Target?" Miko asked.

Mikaela raised an eyebrow at the use of code-name, "Uh, yeah. I think she headed over towards the car park,"

"Yeah, I thought she might, she lives on the edge of town with her dad - some professor or something - and she got a dune-buggy thing recently, so she's probably gonna get that,"

Mikaela visibly sagged at that in exasperation, "Wait - she has a vehicle?! How are we gonna keep up with that _on foot_?"

Rolling her eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, Miko drawled, "Well, duh! That's why we run back to yours, get on your motorcycle, and-"

Mikaela groaned, "Uhhh! Miko, we're never gonna catch up with her in time! I knew this was a stupid idea..."

Miko tried not to look offended, "That, my friend, is where you are WRONG - it's Tuesday, right? She stops off at the grocery store every Tuesday - it'll buy us some time,"

Mikaela considered this for a moment before conceding, "Fine, but we'll have to hurry,"

"Good, now let's go!" Miko said, yet again dragging poor Mikaela by the arm towards her own house.

* * *

After brief explanations (read: EXCUSES) to their parents, by 6pm Mikaela and Miko found themselves around the corner from Sari's street, on a stake-out.

"See anything yet?" Mikaela asked the girl behind her, who raised a pair of binoculars to her eyes.

"Uh... No- YES! She is go, I repeat: The Target is go!"

Skilfully switching her own motorbike's engine on at the same time as Sari did her dune-buggy, they still remained hidden, and Mikaela was silently thankful that she had modified the bike's engine in such a way that it remained relatively quiet.

Sari reversed out of the driveway and headed in the opposite direction, towards  
Promenade Avenue. Waiting a few seconds to give her a few yards of leeway, they set off in pursuit.

As planned, she began to head straight towards the woods. However, Miko and Mikaela soon ran into a red traffic light, effectively losing them valuable seconds; unfortunately, this proved too long, as Sari disappeared around a corner.

"Well crap," Miko muttered.

Mikaela sagged too, "Let's just head into the woods anyway. She'll be there,"

Miko nodded, and they continued on.

A few minutes later, they slowed to a stop in the woods, and Miko hopped off first, followed by Mikaela.

"Let's go!" Miko said, before walking off quickly towards the clearing.

"Wait up!" Mikaela called, struggling to catch-up while dragging her motorbike with her.

They continued on for a few more minutes, when Miko realised something, "Mikaela? Something's really weird,"

Mikaela paused before carrying-on, "What is it?"

Miko stopped and looked back at her companion, "There's no trace of Sari here,"

Mikaela's eyes widened in realisation, before she shushed Miko, "Do you hear that?" she whispered.

Miko's eyes widened too when she heard it: hushed voices, barely audible, were emanating from further into the dense woodland, "Is that...? Is that coming from the clearing?"

Mikaela nodded in confirmation, "Come on,"

One half of Mikaela's brain was stating that the voices could easily belong to walkers and other people. The other side of her questioned why anyone would go for a walk and speak so loud that they were audible from several metres away.

Miko stopped in her tracks and gasped loudly,

"Cool..." she breathed.

"What is it...?" Mikaela asked with no small amount of trepidation in her voice. She reluctantly followed Miko's outstretched finger, and dropped her bike in shock at what she saw in the clearing before them: Sari, along with 6 giant robots.

Who were all looking directly at them.

* * *

Well then, that was Chapter 3 - I'm currently deliberating over how to introduce the Autobots properly in the next chapter without it seeming really contrived or anything, so suggestions are welcome!

Thanks for all your positive feedback so far, and keep it coming in!

Until next time!


	5. Chapter 4

**Transformers and other recognisable brands do not belong to me, but to their respective owners.**

Hey guys! Sorry for the late chapter, but I've been busy and trying to decide how to go-abouts this chapter - ah well, I feel that it's a bit rushed, but oh well. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

**_Chapter 4 - Of Aliens and Destroyed Motorbikes_**

The giant robots and Sari, upon hearing the crash of the bike on the dry undergrowth, immediately snapped their attention towards the two girls.

A strange, foreign muttering came from a couple of the robots that sounded suspiciously like a curse, before Sari started walking towards the girls, "Miko? Mikaela? What are you doing here?! I told you to forget it!"

Then, much to Miko and Mikaela's great surprise, the purple and yellow robot asked in perfect English, "Sari, do you know these girls?"

"Yeah, and I told them to stay away..." Sari muttered.

"Who are you?" the red and white one asked sharply.

Mikaela and Miko warily walked towards the group (who all looked rather feminine, Mikaela subconsciously noted), before stating, "I-I'm Mikaela Banes,"

"And I'm Miko Nakadai!" the Japanese girl exclaimed boldly, apparently forgetting all previous fear that she may have had, "You guys are so COOL! Are you, like, aliens or something? Have you come to enslave us? Or study us? Or-?"

"Great..." the pink and black one facepalmed, "Another Moonracer..."

The 2 girls cowered slightly as the red and pink one with two protruding panels on its back walked towards them. The being kneeled down on her haunches, before declaring in an eerily English-sounding accent, "We are indeed not from this planet; we are Autonomous Robotic Organisms from the Planet Cybertron,"

"But we say 'Autobots' 'cause it's easier," Sari interjected with a small smile, despite her earlier anger at the girls.

"So you ARE aliens..." Mikaela breathed.

The red one in front of her nodded before continuing, "I am Delta Prime, the leader of this little crew," she then rose to her full height with a whir of gears, before looking towards her team, "Come on, introduce yourselves,"

The purple and yellow one who had first spoken nodded sharply before stating her name, "My designation is Elita-One; I am Second in Command,"

She nudged the mildly-disinterested-looking pink and black one next to her, who sighed, "Name's Arcee - spy,"

"I'm Chromia, Weapons," the blue one cast the apparently abrupt Arcee a disapproving look, and continued with a slight Southern drawl.

"Red Alert - medic," the red and white colour scheme suddenly made total sense.

"And I'm Moonracer! The coolest, and the best sharpshooter/scout in the galaxy!" the smallest mint green one trilled in a sweet little Scottish accent, literally buzzing on the spot as she waved eagerly to the two girls; Mikaela slowly returned the gesture with wide eyes, while Miko jumped up and down and waved with as much vigour as the robot.

"And I guess we already know each other," Sari said softly, joining the other 2 humans.

Mikaela quickly made a mental note of all of the names; becoming a human pancake as a result of a simple mistake was NOT on her agenda. She then furrowed her brows slightly, and gathered all of her confidence as she looked up to the 'Autobots', "But why ARE you here?"

The Autobots looked to each other and shrugged before Chromia stepped forward, "We are here bearing an important message from the stars," she gestured airily, "That your world is in grave peril from the Darkness, and only a chosen few can defeat it and save the universe; Miko Nakadai, you are one of them," she finished her performance with a dramatic flourish in Miko's direction.

"Whoa! Really?!"

Chromia snorted, "No; Dude, seriously?"

"Damn it..." Miko just sulked.

"Nah... We crashed here, actually," Chromia continued.

"Don't mind Chromia's rare brand of humour, kid - sometimes even we don't quite get it..." Red Alert cast a glance to the chuckling weapons specialist.

"But to answer your question fully," Delta Prime cast a glance to her team, "We did indeed crash here a little over a century ago. We were on an easy mission in this planet's sector and we got shot down,"

"Crashed..." Mikaela muttered to herself.

"Who shot you down?" Miko asked.

"Decepticons, for some reason," Red Alert answered simply.

"What-i-cons?"

"Decepticons," Sari answered softly.

At the looks of mild bewilderment on the other girls' faces, Sari cleared her throat, "I'll explain later..."

"And besides," Delta continued loudly, "It's getting rather late; I'm sure your caretakers are wondering where you are,"

The girls literally slumped, disappointed, but acknowledging that this was the truth. This did not go unnoticed by the robot, and she cracked a slight smile, "Tell you what: you girls can visit us tomorrow, and we shall talk more then. Alright?"

The girls perked-up, and Miko answered, "And it's Saturday tomorrow!". At the Autobots' looks of mild confusion, she elaborated, "You know, no school? We can be here all day!"

"Joy," Arcee deadpanned quietly, while Moonracer cheered.

"Well, then, it's settled. Now how are you getting home, Miko and Mikaela?" Elita pondered, directing her attention to those two girls in particular.

"Well-" Mikaela was about to answer that they had ridden her motorbike there when said motorbike decided to fall over from the tree it was leaning against. Unfortunately, Chromia, ever the trigger-happy bot, panicked at the sudden crunch, and with a low buzz and large fireball, the bike was no more.  
Everyone stood stock-still; Mikaela's bottom lip moved up and down repeatedly, and her eye twitched.

Chromia's own optics widened comically as she realised that it hadn't been an intruder that she'd shot, and she chuckled nervously, "...Oops...?"

"You... You shot my bike..." Mikaela muttered.

"Chromia..." her teammates warned.

"Real nice..." Arcee facepalmed too.

"You shot my bike..." Mikaela repeated. Chromia rubbed the back of her helm, a human gesture that seemed somewhat apt for that moment, "Sorry...?"

Mikaela's icy-blue gaze turned to fire as she whipped her head towards the Autobot, "What the f-?! You cannot just SHOOT SOMEONE'S BIKE LIKE THAT! THAT BIKE COST ME ALMOST MY ENTIRE SAVINGS LAST YEAR! YOU OWE ME!"

"Um... Mikaela? I don't think they operate in human money..." Miko whispered. At Mikaela's hot gaze, the Japanese girl shrank back.

"Chromia, I think you and I need another talk about your habit of shooting things randomly..." Delta said in a low tone, optics narrowed at the very sheepish blue femme.

"What am I gonna do? It can't be gone..." Apparently Mikaela was now in a state of denial.

"I think I can be of assistance," Elita stated.

"Um, no offence, but I don't think my dad would take too kindly to seeing my ride home via giant alien robot..." Mikaela lifted her head out of her hands and commented wryly.

The bots and Sari chuckled, and Delta nodded her consent to Elita.

"You haven't seen their party trick yet," Sari smirked at the other two.

Elita stepped-out, and few seconds later, the girls gasped and took a step back as the giant robot folded down into herself, a considerable amount of mass seemingly disappearing as she did it; gears and joints whirred in conjunction with a unique noise unlike any the humans had heard before, and within a matter of seconds, there stood a purple and yellow motorbike of the same (albeit updated) model as Mikaela's old bike where Elita-One had stood only moments before.

"What?!" the two girls literally stood agog.

"Y-you were big, and now you are small..." Miko muttered.

Mikaela and Miko immediately turned their attention (and curiosity) towards the others, who sighed, giving in to the humans' expectant looks. A few seconds later, the girls gasped and took a step back as the giant robots literally morphed into vehicles, just as their colleague had done, and with similar sounds, they collapsed into more recognisable, vehicular shapes. The girls gawked at the red Aston Martin DB9 with pink highlights, the pink and black Ducati 868 motorbike, the blue 2014 Ford Ranger pickup truck, the red and white ambulance and the mint green dune buggy.

"That. Is. THE MOST AWESOMELY AWESOME THING EVER!" Miko cheered; how she managed to do that Mikaela didn't know - SHE could barely put a coherent sentence together.

And with Mikaela's stuttering and Miko's buzzing, the entire process was reversed, and within seconds the 6 vehicles had once again become a group of 6 giant alien robots. TRANSFORMING giant alien robots.

"Yeah, I think we forgot to mention that we Cybertronians are widely known as 'Transformers' to the inhabitants of other planets," Delta smiled.

"We can see why..." Mikaela breathed almost to herself, "How did you meet them, Sari?"

The girl shrugged dismissively, "I'll tell you another time - as Delta said, it's getting late,"

Mikaela nodded - could this get any more surreal? Meanwhile, Miko was grinning widely at the Autobots, who all demonstrated different levels of disturbance from the Japanese's girl's grin, "Can you transform into anything you want? Can you turn into a guitar or something?"

"No, we cannot - there are some exceptions who can take-on multiple alt modes, but generally our frame type dictates what we can scan for an alt mode; I'll explain in detail another time..." Red Alert answered.

"What's a guitar?" Moonracer asked.

"A type of human musical instrument," Elita explained to the youngest team member.

"I can show you my guitar another day if you like?" Miko offered - she was hoping to introduce the green bot to the world of rock music.  
"Yes please!" Moonracer eagerly squeaked.

Arcee groaned.

Delta looked around at her team and the humans for a moment; it had quickly become apparent that the two new humans were going to be there to stay, "Well, I think it's time for you lot to get going now. Elita, you take Miko and Mikaela, and Moonracer, you've got Sari,"

The two other femmes agreed and transformed back into their alt modes.

"Hop on," Elita said to the (still gaping) girls. They complied, and at the same time Moonracer opened one door for Sari to get in.

Mikaela suddenly noticed something, "Wait - so your new ride is _Moonracer_?"

"There aren't exactly any _other_ green dune-buggies in the area are there?" Sari smiled.

The other Autobots nodded to each other and they were off.

"We'll see you tomorrow!" Delta called after them.

"And sorry about your bike! I'll make it up to you some time!" Chromia shouted.

Mikaela looked down at the bike she was riding, and smiled, "I think this bike is a good enough substitute,"  
Elita laughed.

* * *

They dropped Miko off first, and then they carried-on to Mikaela's house.

"It's, uh, just on the next right... Perfect. Uh, thanks Elita-One," Mikaela started up her drive.

"It's alright, Mikaela. And just call me Elita," the Autobot was about to reverse when Mikaela interrupted her,  
"Oh, Elita? How am I going to explain to my dad about how I'm suddenly bike-less?"

Elita thought for a moment, "Well, just keep him away from wherever you normally keep the motorcycle, and I shall discuss a more permanent solution with Delta and the others, okay?"

Mikaela nodded, "Thanks. 'Night,"

"Goodnight,"

To Mikaela's astonishment, the figure of a woman clad in jeans and an Elita-coloured leather jacket suddenly appeared on Elita's seat.

The femme saw the human's reaction and chucked, the hologram mirroring this action, "Relax, it's only a hologram. Did you really expect me to drive around without a rider? People would look!"

Mikaela nodded, "Okay, that kinda makes sense,"

With a rev of her engine, Elita was reversing out of the driveway, heading down the street, and disappearing from view.

Mikaela walked up the steps to her front porch and sighed before unlocking the front door.

Looking around the already dark room, it appeared even darker in the dusk light. A musty smell always seemed to permeate through the entire house, and had done since the day they moved in. Squinting slightly so as to see the vague outline of dark clothes on a dark sofa, she realised that her father did not appear to be home; Mikaela walked into the small (yet perfectly functional) kitchen and cast her eyes over to the creaky wooden table, and immediately saw the desired object: a note.

Apparently, her dad would probably sleep down at the garage that night as Ol' Mrs. Cooper wanted her Ford Focus fixed by tomorrow: there was food in the fridge, and he'd be back home in the morning.

Raising a dubious eyebrow, she opened the fridge door, only to be met with a few packets of cheese, ham, and milk. To accompany these, Mikaela found a fresh loaf of bread in the cupboard. Yay.

"Huh, I guess dad was supposed to buy the groceries tonight..."

Making a simple sandwich for herself, she went upstairs; she never liked being downstairs by herself.

* * *

As she was lying there a few hours later watching her old, small TV, Mikaela pondered how she had managed to experience what she and Miko had experienced that day WITHOUT having some form of mental breakdown and/or panic attack. Giant, robotic aliens, who could apparently morph into everyday machines. In hindsight, she felt lucky that she hadn't even fainted.

She briefly wondered how Miko was getting on; the slightly younger girl seemed to be incredibly excited about the whole thing - okay, Mikaela was too, but Miko was more... Hyperactive than herself.

It was at that moment that her phone buzzed. She picked it up, and there was no called ID. Frowning, she relented to the phone's persistent vibrating motion and accepted the call,

"Hello?"

"OhmygoshI'msopsychedfortomorrowareyoupsychedcauseIcertainlyam!"

There was only one teenage girl she knew capable of talking at those speeds without injuring themselves, "Miko?"

"Yep! ThisisamazingImeanwediscoveredanalienracetoday! Well,technicallySarifoundthemfirstbutstill!"

"Whoa whoa whoa _whoa_. Slow down, Miko, I can barely hear what you're saying. And be careful what you say..."

"Humph. Fine... But are you excited?"

"Ecstatic," Mikaela deadpanned despite it being the truth.

There was then a brief silence.

"So... What did your dad say about your motorcycle?"

"Nothing - he's still at work," Mikaela answered, "But apparently our new friends are going to discuss a more permanent solution,"

"Cool,"

"Yeah,"

"..."

"..."

"What time do you wanna go tomorrow?" Miko finally asked, and it was obvious that she was desperately trying to elongate the dying conversation.

"Well, I need to wait until my dad gets back, so... How does 10:30 sound?"

"10:30's cool with me. I'll come via your house then,"

"Yup. See ya Miko,"

"See ya,"

She hung up, and for approximately the 5th time in her life, seriously considered getting those how-not-to-have-an-awkward-conversation lessons.

* * *

Well, there was Chapter 4 of Queens of the World - hope it was okay, but I know this isn't my best... But we'll learn more next chapter.

Anyway, thanks again to all my loyal followers, favouriters (is that even a word?) and reviewers - you guys make my day!

Until next time!


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